Thursday 1 November 2012

Free Promotion Day

Download Pookey for FREE

Saturday 3rd November 2012

Pookey The Mousepig is an illustrated story for small children. A small girls imagination takes her on an adventure with her new found friend Pookey The Mousepig. 
Join Mia and Pookey as they adventure through arid deserts, explore sunken pirate ships in shark infested waters and take a ride on a magic carpet.

Also available in paperback format from

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Extra 20% discount on paperbacks

Lulu.com are offering an extra 20% discount on top of the 25% discount that is already offered on my paperbacks. Simply enter the code JEKYL at checkout for the added discount. (Valid until 26/10/2012)
Link to Lulu.com

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Amazon Bestsellers Rank

Just briefly checked my bestsellers ranking on amazon and I was pleased to see the results below for Pregnancy Diaries


Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #19,685 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Monday 2 July 2012

Your chance to own a signed Pookey card!

I am now offering the chance to own a certified signed business card reading "Best Wishes, Thomas Taylor", or the message of your choice. Go to ebay and place your bids.

Also included in this deal is a glossy fridge magnet of Pookey The Mousepig. An ideal collectors gift or novelty children's gift.

Haappy Bidding :)

Thursday 31 May 2012

Now on Twitter

I have only just set up a Twitter account. I know, where have I been???
Please show your support and hit the tweet button on the left hand side of the page.

Thanks guys....

FREE FREE FREE


Free eBook Alert!

Due to the recent success with the second book to the Pookey series, I am promoting the first ever Pookey book for FREE.
As a special treat for all my valid readers, Pookey The Mousepig will be FREE tomorrow (01/06/2012).
Also available in full colour paperback from Amazon.

Brief Description:

When two unlikely friends meet for the first time, they are instantly thrown into a world of magic and peril. Follow the journey they take through the magical world.
*contains mild danger

Wednesday 30 May 2012

KDP Free Promotion Success!


On Saturday (26/05/2012), I put Pookey The Mousepig The Backyard Rainforest up for a free promotion. I haven't had much success in the past with this book, probably because I have put it up for free on the wrong days. Also, I think it might be slightly overshadowed by the success of the first book.

However, on Saturday 814 copies were downloaded from Amazon. I was extremely happy with the result. I didn't do much promotion and the copies sold spectacularly. It only makes me wonder that if I had have heavily promoted then maybe the results would have been even better.

I wonder if anyone else has had similar success or in some cases even more success. Please leave your comments below and share your results with everyone else. Thanks.

Thursday 24 May 2012

FREE eBook for Children


Pookey The Mousepig is FREE

Download your copy of Pookey for FREE today. Let your children dive into the realms of imagination with magical characters and wild adventures. 
Available for download with the kindle app with Android, Blackberry, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Kindle, PC and just about any device....

Don't Delay, It's FREE Today!!


Sunday 20 May 2012

Free for Download

Pookey The Mousepig is FREE to download.


I have decided to enroll Pookey The Mousepig into the Kindle Select programme again. It will be available free on Friday 25th May 2012.

Brief Description:


Mia Bella is a young girl who has a passion for creating wonderful things from her imagination. When she meets Pookey for the very first time, they are sent to a world of mystery and adventure. Follow their magical journey in this enchanting tale.

A children's book with full colour illustrations intended to be read to children between the ages of 3 and 7. Although older children may enjoy reading the broad vocabulary.

Pass on the word about this free download, (Usually $1.49).




Thursday 10 May 2012

New Crime Novel takes the Forefront

Like most writers, I have many projects on the go all at once. I have been writing the third book to the Pookey series, In Outer Space for a few months now. Unfortunately, due to a little writers block it has been put on the back burner. My main focus has been on my crime novel "Lost".

I dreamt the story up a while back and that too stayed on the back burner, while I was focused on the Pookey series. However, recently my creative juices have been flowing and "Lost" has come to the forefront. It is aimed at an adult audience and will be the first in a series of books about DCI John Wickers.

 

Brief Description:

When a suspected suicide victim calls for DCI John Wickers with her last dying breath, he is hurled into a world wrapped around mystery and heartache. He tries to unravel the truth to her identity and the lonely life she led, not to unsimilar to his own. A tattered photo of an infant child plaques the DCI's mind. Could this person help identify the body? He takes a personal quest to locate and find the lost child and finds some chilling discoveries along the way.
It is quite frustrating having so many book ideas in my head at one time. That in itself may be a contributing factor to writers block. So, I have made it into a habit of writing my ideas into a notebook. That way I can come back to them at a later date. Since writing "Lost" is coming to me so easily, I am going to stick to solely writing it until it is finished. Which unfortunately means that Pookey The Mousepig In Outer Space will not be available until further notice.

I will keep you all posted about the progress of the next Pookey book.

Tuesday 1 May 2012

New Sister Blog for Authors of Adult Literature.

New Book Authors.

Helping New Authors Promote and Share their Work.

I have set up a sister blog to co-exist  alongside Children's Book Authors, for exactly the same purpose, but for the authors of books intended for an older audience. Due to the success and popularity of Children's Book Authors, I decided that the sister site would provide the same support for those of you who have a passion for romance novels, sci-fi, thrillers, non-fiction and anything else intended for adults.

New Book Authors will basically be an exact replica with the odd difference. Shortly I will be adding an authors list page for those aspiring authors out there. Keep posted for updates.

Increase Your Book Sales.

Hey Guys,

If you are a self published author, you will know the difficult task of promoting your own work. Having the perfect book to sell is all well and good, but you need people to be able to know of its existence. I stumbled upon this site, that offers traffic to your website/blog (presuming you have one).

The beauty behind TrafficG.com is that you sign up and list your website/blog address and they refer visitors to your site.  It couldn't be easier. The even better idea behind it is that by refering and adding in the referal link, you recieve more visits to your own site...AND It's free to sign up!

Another cheap way of hopefully selling books or at least getting them more noticed.

Check it out for yourself!!!

Monday 23 April 2012

Facebook pages

Hey Guys,
I could do with some Facebook loving. If you like any of the books I have written, please go to my Facebook page and hit the like button.

Pookey The Mousepig Book Page
Pookey The Mousepig The Backyard Rainforest Book Page
My Author Page

Pookey On Amazon


Front Cover





















Back Cover


Pookey The Mousepig has been available on Amazon in Kindle format for a few months now. The paperback edition is now available on Amazon (UK) and Amazon (US).

Business Cards Update.

Business Cards Have Arrived.


In an earlier post, I wrote about the different approaches I had taken to promote my book. One of those approaches was making a simple business card to hand out to potential buyers.


Well, they have arrived. I am extremely happy with the finished result. I thought a simple approach would work better and hopefully achieve a sale. As can be seen in the picture, I uploaded my own picture. I also added the name of the book, a brief sentence to describe what the product is and where it can be found on the internet. So far, I have carried the cards with me everywhere I have been. This way if I get the chance to talk to people about my book, I have a card to give out so they can hopefully download/buy a copy.

My next step is to lend a copy of the paperback version to my daughters nursery. They have shown great interest in reading the book. I will be leaving a number of cards with the teachers so that if the children like the book, the parents have a card to take action on and hopefully buy the book.
I have been lending my copy out left right and centre to primary school teachers and parents, but until I recieved the cards, there was no way of informing them about how to attain a copy for themselves. Fortunately, the business cards have changed that now. I hope that this small investment will pay off. I will post about the results (if any) on a future date.

Sunday 22 April 2012

Writers block! Whats your remedy?


Well guys, the third book in the series is coming along, albeit slowly. Pookey The Mousepig In Outer Space as you all probably know will hopefully be released at the end of April/ beginning of May. Most of the story has been written and all I have left to do is all the drawings.
This addition to the series has proved a little more difficult to write/illustate. I have had writers block for the last couple of weeks and it has been hard to shift it. Slowly but surely I have managed to put a few ideas down onto paper. I suppose most writers go through the same sort of troubles?

I was wondering how other writers managed to get through their blocks and which remedy they found most affective. Please leave your comments below, I could really do with the help!

Sunday 15 April 2012

Pregnancy Diaries One Man's Perspective Movie.

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/13293204/pregnancy-diaries-one-mans-perspective

Pookey The Mousepig In Outer Space, Exclusive First Chapter Preview.



Chapter 1

It was a beautiful Summers night and Mia was staring up at the stars. The smell of charcoaled sausages and sizzling burgers still filled her nostrils. It was nearly her bedtime, but she begged to stay up for five more minutes just so she could see a shooting star.
Earlier that day at school, Mia had been learning all about the planets and stars in the Universe. Mia's teacher Miss Hoot, had told all the children about outer space and all the mysterious things that exist out there. All the children joined in adding what they thought might exist in outer space. Christopher, a small boy who always had a finger up his nose, said, "I think that shooting stars are gigantic fire flies that flit through the sky at night."
"Well, I think that the moon is made of cheese, the really smelly kind," Margaret butted in.
"My Dad says that aliens live on the moon," Cory said smugly.
Miss Hoot tried to quiet the children as they shouted over each others ideas, "That sounds very imaginative children, but I'm not too sure if any of that is strictly true."
Mia's head was tingling with ideas of what she thought space might really be like. She couldn't wait to scribble down her ideas onto paper when she got home. Then Miss Hoot spoke, "Today children, I would like you to design and make something to do with space."
She looked down her thin steel rimmed spectacles at the children, "Anything at all. Aliens, astronauts, planets; if it's in space then you can make it."
The classroom cheered with excitement. Mia's eyes lit up, all of her ideas were bursting from her head. She knew exactly what she was going to make.

Chapter 2

Unfortunately, Pookey had been left at home while Mia attended school. The last time she snuck him into school, the school janitor's cat almost gobbled him up whole. Although Pookey staying at home was for the best, he did sulk a little when Mia told him about all the fun she had had. Pookey was trying to entertain himself in Mia's bedroom. The days seemed long for him and the only company he had was the soft toys that sat by the doll's house until…..

Pookey The Mousepig and Pookey The Mousepig In The Backyard Rainforest are available for download now at Amazon

Thursday 5 April 2012

Hi, I'm Pookey.


Hi, I'm Pookey The Mousepig. 

You can read about my adventures in my new books. Pookey The Mousepig and Pookey The Mousepig The Backyard Rainforest. Look at the tabs on the top and read through the free previews.

New Blog for New Authors.

Help to promote your work with this blog.


A sister site has been created for all of you who have written adult literature as well as children's books.

New Book Authors is still a work in progress. I am aiming to keep it to the same format and layout as this site. Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions.

Thank you.

Wednesday 4 April 2012

New Book in Progress

Sneak Peak!!!


A special sneak peak for all my blog viewers. Hope you enjoy.

The new book to accompany the Pookey The Mousepig series. I'm sure you can guess from the front cover and title, what the story is about.

I am hoping to publish the story by the end of April. Expect to see it on amazon soon......

Any comments are extremely welcome. 

Discounts on Lulu.com

I have just recieved an e-mail from lulu.com explaining how they are providing further discounts to all of the books on their web-site.

My books are available on lulu.com in paperback format with full colour illustrations:

Pregnancy Diaries One Man's Perspective
Pookey The Mousepig

Advertising Ideas for your Book


Advertising Ideas


There is so many marketing options out there. Which ones are the way to go? Which ones work and which ones don't?

My main concern when thinking about advertising my book, is the costs. In a previous post, I touched on the idea of following up on free promotional adverts using Facebook. I have found that most company's will provide some sort of discount when you register with their site.

For example, I have signed up with vistaprint.co.uk and they instantly e-mailed me offers and discounts. They provided me with the opportunity to create a t-shirt for free. All I had to pay for was the post and packaging. A mere £3.06. I jumped at the chance. Walking around wearing a t-shirt with my book details on it might be a bit cringe-worthy, but for £3 I thought of it as a cheap promotional stunt. I will wear it whenever I go to the shops or places I know people will be interested, basically children's parties or play areas etc. I am always taking my 3 year old to these sorts of places, so even if nobody approaches me to ask about the book, the name is getting seen.

Another option vistaprint offered was the chance to create a car door magnet (also for free). Again all I had to pay was the post and packaging. I created it with the easy to use on-line creation tools and I was away. The magnet is a quicker way for the book to be seen around town. I stick it to my car door wherever I go. The layout is very simple, just the name of the book and where to download from. I am advertising my book while I am driving, all I had to pay for was the postage costs. 

These are simple and cheap ways to promote your book. They may not work all that well, but I believe having the books name out there being viewed in public can familiarise the product with people. The beauty of it is, that if a person was to see the advert on my car door, then arrive at home and coincidentally log on to amazon, there is a chance they see the book and through familiarity click on the book to buy. The exact purpose of an advert is to make products familiar to the public and create a sub-conscious awareness of the product. Being familiar with a product is key. The more you see a product, whether you like it or not, you are more likely to think of that product when searching for a similar item. 

Thursday 29 March 2012

New Promotion Idea!

This is my new idea for promotional ideas!


It's a bit of a laugh I know, but it would be great if my books actually did show on buses like this. Joking aside, I have been looking on Vistaprint recently and found some exciting deals. I have created a T-shirt anf mug combo to promote my brand when I'm out and about. I have also created 500 business cards with my books front cover on. My mother works in a shop and is allowed to show my book by the till. I figured that if people like the book, they could take a business card with all the details and either download it or order the paperback online. Worth a try I thought and it only cost me a minimum.


FREE PROMOTION 31/03/2012

Pookey The Mousepig The Backyard Rainforest is FREE to download on the 31/03/2012

Available to download onto your Android phone, Blackberry, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Kindle, Mac or PC with the FREE Kindle App 



Saturday 24 March 2012

Using Facebook For Promotion.



Facebook is used by over 845million people worldwide.

Everybody I know has a facebook account. When I fiirst started writing, I wasn't aware of the scale off promotion I would have to do to get my book noticed. It's a tough world for new author's. I didn't want to spend any money promoting, as I wasn't sure if my work would be worth it.

Immediately after publishing onto Kindle, I updated my facebook status letting all my friends know about my book. It proved to work, as I recieved lots of comments asking where they could get it. Now, I only have about 200 friends, so that wouldn't make my book a best-seller. So I searched for similar pages that related to what I was selling/promoting. I searched for Kindle naturally and posted a small link to my book. It worked, I had a few sales from this. My searches kept going and every time I logged onto facebook, I would search for another page that would help promote my work.

I also looked into creating a facebook ad. I noticed you could cap your personal spendature to a value desirable. However, I didn't think that my allowance of £10 for advertising would cause that much of a stir. So, I abondoned the whole idea. That was until facebook e-mailed me saying they noticed I had tried to set up an advertising account and they offered me £25 free advertising. GREAT!!!

I set up the account (which didn't take long) and I watched my clicks soar. The ad reached out to over 2 million users interested in children's books. The ad proved to be a success and made my book more noticeable. Now, I wouldn't spend the money on the advertising again just yet, because I believe that the visibility the ad gave me wasn't worth the money. But hey, when facebook offer me £25 worth of free advertising again, I'll snap their arm off for it.

Thursday 22 March 2012

Hunger Games, Harry Potter and other films made about the books. Is it a good idea?


It is something I have been scratching my head about recently.

The Hunger Games movie is being released on 22nd March 2012 in the UK. It is quite obvious, that when your book is considered for a film, you can officially say you have made it. The Harry Potter films, have raked in over $300,000,000 worldwide. Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed most films that have been inspired by books, but the films don't always show the books off to their full potential.
I have read all of Roald Dahl's books. I have watched several of the films after reading the books and have found them not to entertain me as much as the books did. Roald Dahl is my favourite children's author, he is my inspiration. I would look forward to going to bed of an evening and lose myself in one of his imaginative books. The movie equivalent never does the book any justice. Often the film makers leave out crucial chapters or characters to ensure smooth running of the film and to keep the running time to the recommended average.
Having a book made into a movie brings in a large sum of revenue. It also helps to boost sales of the books, due to worldwide publicity. I wonder, if letting your book become a movie can sacrifice all the hard work that you have put into writing the book. Afterall, with most movie producers deleting chapters and characters and sometimes changing the titles, the end product may be considerably different to the original book itself. The book being a mere skeleton frame for the special effects and famous cast.
My most worrying thought as a writer, is that if I had any of my books made into films, would I lose my soul because of the large sums of cash and would I still have my drive to write as my heart has always wanted to? I would like to feel that no amount of money would be enough for me to let some movie producer strip my book down to its bare bones and make a film based upon it. If I have put my heart and soul into writing the book, having somebody do such a thing would be soul destroying.
I wish the greatest amount of luck to any author who has landed a movie deal about their book. However, please stay true to your heart and remember what your first objective was when you first starting writing. Never lose the spirit that you put into a book.

Thursday 15 March 2012

KDP select. Does it work for you?

I have enrolled my books into the KDP select programme.
The basic incentive behind this programme is for Kindle to have your book exclusively. This may seem daunting to some author's; it did to me at first. However, I decided to enroll my books into the programme on a trial basis. You are tied in to the programme for 90 days, but after which you can opt out. I guessed it was worth a try.
When you enroll a book, KDP allow you to promote your book for free on any 5 days you please. I chose to seperate my 5 days over a few weeks, some author's choose for a 5 day run. I had virtually zero sales when I first uploaded my book. On my first day of free promotion, my sales rocketed to nearly 200. The next few free days, I watched the sales soar to into the 1000's. Obviously I didn't recieve any revenue from these free sales, but my sales ever since have been steady. With that, it would seem that the free promotion has aided my books exposure and sales.
The other benefit from the programme, is that the book will be available in the Kindle lending library. Kindle has a monthly kitty of roughly $500,000. If a book is borrowed from the library, then the author will recieve a share of the $500,000. This to me is what bent my arm into submission. After the first few weeks, none of my books had been borrowed. I was beginning to think I had made a wrong decision. However, my books pulled through and my first borrowed report came in. Working out how much my book is borrowed for with Kindle's estimated calculations, state my borrowed book earned me $5. Not bad considering the revenue I usually earn from that book is only $0.60. Since the first lending, I have subsequently lended another 5 books. That's $30 in total.
The KDP select programme doesn't always work though. I have had one book that has lay stagnant in the lending library. I have hardly recieved any free sales in comparison and no borrows what so ever. The game we play as author's, regarding self publishing is that it is definately a game of luck. It is down to us to promote our work and us alone. KDP do nothing to promote our work unless it reaches the top 100 list. I do believe that the share of $500,000 is a good incentive, but if my books were on other sites such as Barnes&Noble, would I have accumilated the same revenue anyway?
In conclusion, the programme works for author's in the same way a bet works for a gambler. It can go in any direction. I have found success with one book and misery with another. The upside to my stagnant book, is that after 90 days I can publish it onto numerous sites. I have opted to do this with my other books, even though they are doing well in the lending library. The key to self-publishing success to me, is the exposure. Having my titles on Kindle alone, doesn't get my name noticed by people who don't own a kindle. Hopefully by uploading my titles to many different websites, I will increase my visibility and therefore sell more books.

Thursday 8 March 2012

Using newspapers for promotion!

I recently wrote to a local newspaper about my first children's book. What harm would it do, right? Well, they rang me up immediately and was really interested in the story. Maybe it was lack of news or something, but hey it got my name in the paper. I think using free promotional tools such as newspapers are a great way for a first time author to gain exposure.
Has anybody else tried this type of avenue? I strongly suggest everyone who is an unknown author to try this out. I've had lots of my friends and family comment to me about the article, so it obviously has reached out to the community. Give it a whirl, like I said, it can't do any harm.
If anybody else has already tried this, feedback please. Also, has your sales increased because of this?

Happy writing.

Tuesday 6 March 2012

New book ideas!!

Just started writing my new children's book. Billy Dean and the T.V Time Machine is a story about a boy with the ability to time travel. He travels through time to the land of the dinosaurs. He confronts his fears and learns a  wise lesson. He uses this to his advantage.

I've had lots of input from readers of my previous books. Lots of my readers want me to name characters after them or their pets etc. I am flattered by the responses I have had. Then I had an idea. Maybe my readers could have a say in what characters were in my next book/future books.

If anyone has a character idea that you may want to see in one of my books, get in touch. I will see if I can develop a story for the character.

Thursday 1 March 2012

Self publishing?

I have recently come across a few self publishing sites that print on demand (POD). Has anybody else used any of these sites to self publish?